


Brothers

by Wolver_bean



Category: X-Men (Comicverse)
Genre: Angst, Blood, Brothers, Half-Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-17
Updated: 2014-06-17
Packaged: 2018-02-04 23:36:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 951
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1797475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wolver_bean/pseuds/Wolver_bean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It’s been years since he spoke aloud. He tells himself this is the true reason why his voice sounds so broken.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers

**Author's Note:**

> Based on WATXM #26

"JAMES! James Howlett! Show your face, lil brother! JAMIE!" Dog Logan's harsh yells echo around the snowy cliffs. He sees the scene he was told about by the hunters in the bar- abandoned bison calf carcasses and a couple of rifles. Arcs of blood. A severed finger. Dog grips his own rifle tighter. 

A shuffling sound in the wind- Dog looks up and meets a pair of knifelike blue eyes and an unwelcoming snarl. A small young man is crouched fifteen feet above him on a protruding ledge. He's wearing deerskin boots and a loincloth with untrimmed hair and nails. His hair is tied back and falls across his shoulders in a tail. How fitting.

"James! There you are, ya idiot!" Dog snarls back. He remains footed when a pack of timber wolves appear at the flanks of his little brother.  
When James fails to respond, Dog continues. 

"What are ya doin?? You almost killed a couple ‘a guys! All they were doin’ was huntin’ bison!" Dog pauses. “...Figures.” he adds.

James's anger revs. He wants to tell Dog how the hunters had been killing the baby bison. His eyes leave Dog and fall to the carcasses behind him. 

"I've been trying to find you for a goddamned year and you're out here in the woods, half naked and attacking hunters for no good reason! You freak. You didn't faint this time, didja?"

When all James can manage is a reined snarl, Dog hoists his rifle to aim. 

James bares his teeth to the rifle Dog holds. It can’t be the same rifle. It can’t be the one that- That killed his father. He sees red at the edges of his vision- but it's fear he feels. It is the same rifle. It is.

Dog smiles and his trigger finger twitches. He thinks this is a game. “Recognize this? Let’s test yer memory!” He points it up, squints and fires. The shot sounds like splitting rocks, snapping iron. James takes the hit to his chest, directly. He falls back with a collected yell and lies limp. The wolves wait patiently. Dog almost panics. They know. They know.

Dog opens his eyes and lowers his weapon. It is a split second of ringing suspense before James leaps down from the ledge, six porcelain looking claws aimed forward, and lands on Dog's shoulders. The leap knocks the large mustached man onto his back.

"Look at you! You freak!!" Dog shoves his bleeding younger brother off of his shoulders. He grabs his fallen gun and scrambles back several feet. He shoots again, and James stumbles. 

"I hate you! You monster, you fuckin’ freak!!" Dog says, eyeing the claws and shooting again. "I’m glad you saw soft John die! I hope you never sleep! I hope no one loves you- not that they ever did!" Dog doesn't realize he's talking to a mirror. The gun makes the same sound it did when it was fired at poor John Howlett’s skull, years ago. James's claws move with his hands the same way they did when they fell across Dog's face, then they fell through their father's heartless heart and the awful man bled to death in Dog's arms. But the claws don't move towards Dog again. James backs away, to the bottom of the cliff. He's cornered, and crouches, ready to leap again. The bullet holes in him are closed, only a smear of blood remains. Dog continues shouting. 

"You murderer! Animal! You ain't even human! Just a worthless dog! Look at you!!"

"I KNOW!" James bursts. Dog falls stunned silent. 

James surprises himself by continuing. It’s been years since he spoke aloud. He tells himself this is the true reason why his voice sounds so broken.

"Look at me! I'm living in the woods, half naked with a pack of wolves. Something is wrong with me and I don't know how to... to fix it! I don't know what I am and I'm all alone! Nobody wants me. You're my own brother and you don't even want me!" He's cornered, shaking and crying. If tears weren't salt they would be freezing on his cheeks. 

"What's wrong with me?" He's looking at his hands. "What am I??" he puts his hands forward. "When has anyone ever been like... This?? What do I do??"

Dog watches him sob for a few savory moments, soaking in the victory. 

"That's right. I'm better than you." Dog says quietly, as to reassure himself. He feels as if this is the beginning of his grand adventure. The defeat of rich, snobby, little runty James Howlett- the freak in the woods. Dog is unaware that he is beaming. He looks around, as if someone would be there watching his glorious triumph. But there is no one but him, his lost little brother, a pack of wolves and three bison calf carcasses. 

James coughs on a sob and gets up. His claws are sheathed. "..It has to be like this. I can't... I can't..." He closes his eyes and holds his breath, looking away. 

Then, with a deep breath and open eyes, his face turns to the north, and he runs. The pack bays and follows him. Dog is alone with his rifle and the dead baby bison. 

 

Dog Logan returns to the bar a few miles south that evening to tell his story of how he avenged the hunters of their misfortune while overcoming his own personal battles through the only kind of brutality he knows. 

But all that everyone talks about was the clawed thing in the woods. Dog finds himself fuming and alone and forgotten and just a worthless dog. The hunters don't even thank him.

It would never end.


End file.
